Local Summer Festival

I suppose there would have been no bad season for me to arrive in Japan. Everything was new to me and I would have found interesting events, discovered seasonal dishes and explored, whatever the season was.
Nevertheless, Summer is my favourite season, and I soon discovered Summer festivals.

As it turned out the first festival I went to was in a tiny neighbouring town, not in the small regional city I lived in.
In the photo above is a traditional folklore kind of performance, unfortunately I have no further information.

In both the photo above, and the photo below, flags of various countries can be seen. The festivals (apart from the small neighbourhood festivals within individual residential areas of cities or towns) would always look to include new foreign residents. It was really nice to see and it’s a great way for new residents and long term locals to meet and interact.

The stalls along either side above are food, the one on the left front is grilled squid, and the right front is potato fries.
There were many other kinds of food being sold at these stalls, however I loved having a variety of seafood available to eat.

I would say the main draws of these Summer festivals are the food, the fireworks, and a large procession, often with large floats of some kind.

On this occasion I had gone with a few friends and a couple of families, and afterwards we went back to one of their homes and let off some of our own fireworks next to their pond.

It’s very common to buy fireworks from supermarkets or convenience stores to let off with a few friends or family.
I have heard from my parents that when they were children they used to set off fireworks, however this is now illegal (in Australia).
I hope that responsible use of personal fireworks continues in Japan, as it would be a shame for this aspect of Summer to be lost.